For small businesses, orders are typically made by mail, by telephone or by customers physically at the small business premises. Some small businesses are able to accept orders electronically, but this is generally an unsatisfactory mechanism in most areas of commerce as it requires either technical competence or considerable investment by the business, and also appropriate and available hardware for the user. Some mechanisms for ordering by cellular telephone are known (for example, a mechanism for ordering from a vending machine by cellular telephone with billing addressed by the service provider), but these typically require considerable infrastructure and cost for the supplying business.
Ordering by telephone is the most attractive route for customers for many forms of goods (for example, takeaway food). It would be desirable to improve current approaches to ordering goods and services by telephone to improve the ordering experience for the user while enabling cost effective order processing by the business.